captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> ifill: the republican presidential campaign heated up in florida today after newt gingrich scored a come-from- behind win in south carolina. good evening. i'm gwen ifill. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the newshour tonight, we'll have the latest on the g.o.p. contest, plus analysis from stuart rothenberg and susan page. >> ifill: then, we talk to marcia coyle of the "national law journal" about the supreme court's ruling in a g.p.s. tracking case. >> brown: ray suarez updates the situation in syria, after president assad rejects the arab league's plan to end the ten- month-old crisis. >> ifill: from the philippines, we look at the effort to promote family planning, as the

population grows and food supplies dwindle. >> in villages we train and identify community-based distributors like this to be able to sell condoms any time. >> brown: and paul solman sits down with president obama's consumer financial watchdog, richard cordray. >> this is a valid appointment. the law is pretty clear on that. the important thing is we needed a director in order to be able to fulfill the promise to the american people that congress made. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. and with the ongoing support of

these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> brown: the republican presidential race took a sharp new turn today. mitt romney launched an aggressive assault on newt gingrich, the weekend winner in south carolina, and gingrich answered in kind. judy woodruff begins our coverage. >> woodruff: the new romney offensive cranked up in florida after his 12-point loss in south carolina. in tampa, he charged gingrich, a former house speaker, should not have pressed congress for a medicare drug benefit since he was not a registered lobbyist. >> that could represent not just evidence of lobbying but potentially, you know, wrongful activity of some kind. >> woodruff: under questioning, romney stopped short of saying outright that gingrich committed a crime. >> we just need to understand what his activity has been

over the last 15 years and make sure that it conformed with all the regulations that might exist. >> woodruff: gingrich fired back at his own appearance in tampa, suggesting romney is running scared. >> if you've been campaigning for six years and you begin to see it slip away, you get desperate. when you get desperate, you say almost anything. this is such balogne. now it used to be pious balogne but now it's just desperate balogne. that's the succession of this campaign. we've moved from romney's pious balogne to romney's desperate balogne. >> woodruff: romney also attacked gingrich's consulting work for the mortgage giant freddie mac. >> while florida families lost everything in the housing crisis, newt gingrich cashed in. gingrich was paid over $1.6 million by the scandal-ridden agency that helped create the crisis. >> woodruff: in romney's

financial disclosure forms show he too profited from freddie mac through his investments. still romney insisted that gingrich also release all documents from a congressional ethics investigation he faced in the '90s. >> in the case of the speaker, he's got some records which would represent an october surprise. we could see an october surprise today from newt gingrich. >> woodruff: earlier on abc gingrich said he found romney's document demand ironic. >> here's somebody who has released none of his business records, who has decided to make a stand on transparency without being transparent. i did no lobbying, period. he keeps using the word lobbyist because i'm sure his consultants tell him it scores well. it's not true. he knows it's not true. he's deliberately saying things he knows are false. >> woodruff: the barrage came after romney spent part of the weekend playing defense. on fox news yesterday, he bowed to demands by gingrich and others to release his tax returns for 2010. and an estimate for 2011.

tomorrow and not wait until april. >> we just made a mistake in holding off as long as we did. it just was a distraction. we want to get back to the real issues in the campaign. >> woodruff: the gingrich campaign reported raising $1 million in the 24 hours after its victory in south carolina. the cash infusion came as gingrich faces the expense of buying television ads in florida's multiple media markets. campaigning in lady lake, florida, today, rick santorum who finished third in south carolina warned against the romney-gingrich in-fighting. >> we want to make shall... this race about one thing: about barack obama and his record. that's what this race has to be about. if this race is about the republican nominee and their inconsistencies, their problems and all the other issues revolving around them, folks, a billion dollars and

the mainstream media will make this a very, very ugly election. >> woodruff: texas congressman ron paul had no appearances in florida today but planned to take part in tonight's debate. >> ifill: for more we're joined by stuart rothenberg of the "rothenberg political report" and "roll call" newspaper, and susan page, washington bureau chief of "u.s.a. today." she's in tampa, where the republicans meet to debate tonight. susan, you're on the ground in florida. what are these two especially leading candidates up to to take advantage of what happens in south carolina, in newt gingrich's case and to overcome what happened in south carolina in mitt romney's case. >> this is the ninth presidential campaign i've covered. i have never seen anything like we see happening in these last few days. eight days ago, mitt romney had a 23-point national lead in the gallup poll over newt gingrich. today that's down to a single and significant point. you know, romney has had an organization. he's had a lot more money than

newt gingrich. newt gingrich has the surge the likes of which we've never seen. i think this debate tonight and another debate that is scheduled for thursday night are going to be the keys to whether this race really gets just turned on its head. >> ifill: i have to ask you what did mitt romney mean when he started talking about october surprises? >> i think he's reflecting a concern by a lot of establishment republicans that newt gingrich would be a flawed nominee, that he's mercurial. he has a past where he has taken a lot of different positions. he's been a provocateur basically for the last decade or two. there will be a lot to mine there by democrats but the fact is newt gingrich has managed to tap into the mood of republican voters this year which is angry and defiant and really wants to take on president obama in a big way. it's working for him so far. florida is a state that's a much bigger test, a huge state. much more diverse than the first three contests we saw.

if he can do it here, man, how is mitt romney going to stop him? >> ifill: talking about two guys in a ring boxing it out now. it seems there are very different approaches even watching mitt romney just now. he was saying in a circular way we are going to see what he does which may not be within the law. whereas newt gingrich comes out and says it's desperate balogne. >> right. romney just read that rule book. who was that? the queens bury rule book about how to fight. he's kind of a dignified fighter. the thing about newt is he likes to throw the bombs. this is an environment where republican voters are exactly as susan said, they're angry, they're defiant. they're confrontational. they're mad not only at president obama. they're really mad at him. they're angry at the establishment. and their own leader. they're looking for someone who will take no prisoners and who says i'm going to stick it to it as we hear every time,

glen, the libial media, the liberal establishment. they love that. >> ifill: susan was talking about how desperate mainstream republicans are over this. have you been picking up on that? >> absolutely. i get that everyday when i call around and speak to strat jifs and insiders. they're very concerned because it's one thing to appeal to the bomb thrower in the party when those are the people who are picking the nominee. the reality is in a general election, the kind of people who are going to decide who wins, the republican or the democrat are going to be swing voters. they're frustrated and worried and upset but not nearly as angry as the average republican is. >> ifill: whenever we get to florida whether it's a primary or general it ends up being crucial. what it is about florida particularly for these two republican candidates that they're going to zero in on? >> housing is an issue we'll hear a lot about tonight's debate. florida has the 7th highest rate of home foreclosures of any state in the nation. it's really been hit hard by the housing bust.

that's one reason we see the add from romney that tries to link gingrich to the problems in the housing market although it's interesting, mitt romney this morning demanded that newt gingrich release his contract with freddie mac. and the gingrich group says they're going to release it tonight. one other thing that's happened just in the last half hour or so is that john ralston, a friend of the newshour, the reporter from las vegas, says that the las vegas billionaire who has been funding newt gingrich's super pac has agreed to thro another $5 million into the pot. that will help make gingrich competitive on the air waves here. that's one important thing here. eight big media markets in florida. mitt romney has been advertising here for weeks and weeks. we're going to see a barrage here on both sides in this final week that, you know, florida voters better brace themselves for. >> ifill: it's interesting. newt gingrich hasn't been on the air at all. that may not matter especially if they're evenly matched.

what are the other measures we're using to decide what happens next even though last week this time none of our measures turned out the way they were. >> we're still certainly looking at the survey data as they come out to see if there's any movement. you know, i think what's crucial, what's going to be crucial, gwen, is a, can romney change the discussion so it's about gingrich? and can he raise questions about gingrich's agenda, ideology? is he really a conservative? it's going to be hard to dictate to people who vote for. you kind of have to lead them to the information and hope that they start drinking it in. >> ifill: ron paul and rick santorum are going to be on the stage tonight. both of them have said they're not really competing in florida. like the two main guys are. watching this debate tonight, what are you looking for between the two primary candidates? >> this is a race now that boils down to kind of two-and-a-half, two and a quarter person race with santorum still in the background buzzing around.

>> ifill: throwing bombs. >> we're going to look to see i think whether mitt romney is more aggressive, whether he can deliver an attack without looking almost uncomfortably silly. can he really take it on? and how gingrich responds. remember when newt gingrich is the frontrunner that's when he's in the greatest danger. he is a guy with a big personality and a big ego. sometimes he oversteps when he thinks he's got the upper hand. >> ifill: susan, what are you looking for tonight? >> i think stu is just right. here's the question. can romney get under newt gingrich's skin or can he bait him to say something that seems outrageous or unwise because the fact is in all these debates we've had-- what is this the 18th debate? -- in all these debates i mean it's hard to think of a bad moment for newt gingrich. it's his natural domain. he loves being on the debate stage. he was born to debate. that's really served him well in this presidential contest that has been defined to such

a great extent by these debates. >> ifill: susan page, i know you're on your way to cover that debate tonight. tell us what it's all about in tomorrow's usa today. stu rothenberg, thanks very much. >> thanks, gwen. >> thanks, gwen. >> brown: still to come on the newshour, a supreme court ruling on g.p.s. tracking; syria rebuffs the arab league; food security in the philippines; and a financial watchdog under fire. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: at least two people were killed and 100 hurt when possible tornadoes struck before dawn in alabama today. they were part of a violent weather system crossing the country. as daylight broke, the roar of chainsaws filled the air around birmingham alabama. entire homes had been flattened, roofs peeled off others, and trees snapped in half. >> i ran to the laundry room, got the rest of my family. we were in the laundry room when it actually hit. we could feel the walls vibrating. we heard a loud crash. that was the tree that landed

on our roof. >> reporter: the skies lit up overnight when the worst of the weather rolled across alabama, arkansas and missouri. there were reports of at least five tornadoes that touched down. >> busted up a little bit. >> reporter: the bad weather pushed east today and the huge system stretched all the way from the great lakes to the deep south. where the heaviest storms were hitting. they left a trail of power outages with thousands in the dark in arkansas alone. a u.s. marine pleaded guilty today to dereliction of duty in the killing of two dozen iraqis in 2005. staff sergeant frank wuterich agreed to a plea deal that dropped manslaughter and other charges. he will spend a maximum of three months in a military prison. in all, eight marines were charged in the killings at the iraqi town of haditha. the other seven had already been acquitted or had the charges dropped. a prayer service in nigeria today marked the killing of at least 185 people in suicide car bombings last friday.

the attack hit police stations and immigration offices in kano, the african nation's second largest city. a radical islamist sect, boko haram, claimed responsibility. the group killed more than 500 people last year, but has already killed 260 in january alone. a former c.i.a. agent has been indicted on charges of disclosing classified secrets to a "new york times" reporter in 2002. the justice department says john kiriakou is the man responsible for how the public came to know that terrorist financier abu zubaydah was water boarded 83 times. it is the sixth criminal leak case filed by the d.o.j. if convicted, kiriakou could face decades in prison and a million-dollar fine. the european union will impose strict new sanctions on oil shipments from iran, in a bid to slow its nuclear program. the decision today brought new iranian threats against the strait of hormuz, entrance to the persian gulf. we have a report from john irvine of independent television news. >> reporter: overnight a u.s. aircraft carrier passed

through the strait in defiance of an iranian threat to respond with full force if the americans replaced her sister ship which left the gulf last month. the abraham lincoln was escorteded in by a french vessel and the royal navy's h.m.s.argile, a flotilla of three navies amounting to a pointed gesture to iran just hours before the e.u. decision to place an embargo on iranian oil. >> absolutely right to do this. in view of iran's continued breach of u.n. security council resolutions and refusal to come to meaningful negotiations on the nuclear program. >> reporter: in response, a senior iranian politician said they would definitely close the strait of hormuz if oil exports were disrupted. the strait isn't just a vital artery for the global economy; it's the jugular. but it's an exposed one. at its narrowest point the

strait of hormuz is roughly 30 miles across, but the actual sea lanes through the strait in and out of the persian gulf are only two miles across. the iranians have gone to war in the gulf before. the tanker wars saw more than 500 commercial vessels damaged as the iran-iraq conflict spilled over into this vital water way. >> sreenivasan: the full effect of the european embargo on iran's oil will not be felt until july. similar u.s. sanctions could take effect at the same time. egypt's new freely elected parliament has opened its inaugural session. islamist parties hold an overwhelming majority in the powerful lower house that convened today. the chamber's main priority is to draft a new constitution. abortion opponents staged an annual rally in washington today, marking the 39th anniversary of "roe v. wade." thousands of people gathered in a chill rain on the national mall, denouncing the u.s. supreme court decision that legalized abortion.

from there, they made the march to the court building. u.s. senator mark kirk, an illinois republican, is in intensive care in chicago after suffering a stroke over the weekend. he had surgery last night to relieve swelling on the brain. doctors said he may suffer loss of movement in his left arm, and some facial paralysis. kirk is 52 years old. he was elected in 2010. arizona congresswoman gabrielle giffords met today with constituents who were present when she was shot in the head a year ago. a gunman killed six people that day, and wounded giffords and 12 others. on sunday, the tucson democrat announced she would resign, in order to focus on her recovery. she spoke in an online video. >> i'm getting better. every day my spirit is high. i will return, and we will work together for arizona and this great country.

>> sreenivasan: giffords plans to submit her formal resignation this week, and she will appear at tomorrow's state of union address. the governor of arizona must now call a special election to replace her. the penn state community was in mourning today after former football coach joe paterno died sunday of lung cancer. supporters flocked to the coaching legend's statue on campus. they left candles, flowers, and signs that honored his legacy of 46 years at the school. paterno was 85. he had been fired last november amid a child molesting scandal involving his former top assistant. the funeral service and burial will be wednesday. in economic news, stocks finished flat on wall street today. the dow jones industrial average lost 11 points to close at 12,708. the nasdaq fell two points to close at 2784. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to jeff. >> brown: in 2005, police secretly attached a g.p.s. device to a jeep owned by antoine jones, a washington, d.c., nightclub owner. information gathered from tracking his movements eventually helped bring about his conviction for cocaine trafficking.

today, though, the supreme court ruled the police action was a violation of the constitution. the decision itself was unanimous, but the justices were divided in their reasoning, as they grappled with tricky issues of law, technology, and privacy. as always, marcia coyle of the "national law journal" is here to walk us through the decision. fill in some of the facts of this case. for one thing this surveillance went on for quite a while. >> it did. the g.p.s. device was attached to the underbelly of the jones's jeep grand cherokee. the police monitored the jeep movements 24 hours a day for 28 days. >> brown: the court ruled unanimously in its result. >> right. >> brown: written by justice scalia. >> first of all it was the united states that brought this appeal to the supreme court. the united states argued basically that this was not a search within the fourth amendment because mr. jones had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the underbelly

of his jeep or on the roads on which the jeep traveled. public roads that everybody could see. justice scalia in his opinion today rejected that argument. he said that the fourth amendment for most of our nation's history has embodied a special concern for government trespasses into the areas that the fourth amendment protects. and those areas are our right to be secure in our persons, houses, papers, and effects. the vehicle is an effect, he said. when the government obtains information through a physical intrusion into one of those protected areas, it is a search. >> brown: he's saying it's different than if the police just followed this car for all that time, something fundamentally different in the technology that's invasive? >> it's actually the physical attachment plus the obtaining the use of it to obtain the information. he said those are the two elements that you need that equal a search under the

fourth amendment. >> brown: four justices, this is the interesting part here, they went along with the decision but not with the justice scalia's reasoning. >> exactly. justice skaly... just ti alito wrote separately. he was joined by justices ginsburg, brian and justice kagan. he felt there was a problem with the trespass approach to the fourth amendment. he said, for example, if the government persuaded or ordered auto manufacturers to install g.p.s. devices in every vehicle, the fourth amendment wouldn't provide protection for our rights. >> brown: if it was there already as opposed to the police physically putting it there. >> there was no physical intrusion on a protected right. he said the best way to approach this is to look at whether there was a reasonable expectation of privacy in these circumstances. he explained that short-term monitoring by g.p.s. devices may accord with what our expectations of privacy are.

long-term may not. the court he said wasn't going to provide any bright lines here. it was enough to say, he said, that this search cross the fourth amendment line before the four-week period was up. >> brown: but he's arguing for or at least groping towards a, i guess, a more expansive notion of privacy in the technological.... >> he absolutely is. so did justice sotomayor who joined justice scalia's opinion but wrote separately. both of them noted many types of surveillance that don't involve physical intrusion. they talked about those like the cameras at intersections that are catching speeders. justice sotomayor even said that it may be time to pre-examine the premise that information given voluntarily to third parties is... that there's no reasonable expectation of privacy in that because we get so many information through internet transactions to the government

for various reasons. >> brown: there's shifting even by the day, right, in terms of how much we give and routinely? >> exactly. yes, that's the tricky part for the court and why i think this is a narrow decision and the court is treading frr cautiously here because as as technology changes so do our expectations of privacy. and a rule laid down today may not come port with that expectation five to ten years. >> brown: so, therefore, how significant... how do you parse this in terms of significance when you get this kind of decision with different kinds of reasoning and only going so far? >> well, i think together the opinions send a very clear message especially the law enforcement. if you want to use something like a g.p.s. tracking device, get a warrant. >> brown: that's clear. >> absolutely. and also the court is leaving, as it says, justice scalia pointed out for another day the more difficult questions that are obviously out in the lower courts. lu they'll get to the supreme

court. they're keeping an eye on how this technology evolves and how you and i react to it. >> brown: i remember the argument because you were here for the argument. they were talking about george orwell and the changes in technology. they are very aware that these kinds of questions about technology, privacy and law are unfolding by the day. they will have to.... >> absolutely. they have begun to do that. two terms ago they had, if you recall, the case involving the fourth amendment search of police pagers for their text messages. even there they wrote a very narrow decision, a very moving, very cautious decision in this area. >> brown: in the meantime antoine jones. >> his conviction has been reversed. it was reversed by the lower court in this case. it will be up to the prosecution to stid whether they have enough evidence without the g.p.s. information to retry him. >> brown: marcia coyle of the

national law journal, thanks as always. >> my pleasure, jeff. >> ifill: ten months after it began, the conflict in syria continues unabated. an anti-government group reported 23 more people were killed today. ray suarez has more on developments in syria, and the arab world's search for an end to the violence. >> suarez: the syrian government today 4 rejected a peace plan adopted at this arab league meeting yesterday in cairo. the plan called for forming a unity government in syria within two months. that would be followed by supervised parliamentary and presidential elections and president bashar al assad would hand over his powers to the country's vice president during the transition period. the european union endorsed the plan today and so did the u.s. state department. >> they made a concrete proposal in line with the leadership that they've been showing on the syria issue for

many weeks now. about how this could happen. regrettably, assad rejected it almost before the ink was dry. this just speaks again to the fact that he's thinking about himself and his cronies, not about his people. >> suarez: the arab league also agreed to extend its observer mission in syria for another month, but the monitor's presence has been criticized for failing to stop the syrian government's violent campaign against protestors. meanwhile in syria, this amateur video showed a mass gathering today in duma just outside damascus. thousands turned out to mourn nearly a dozen residents killed in clashes over the weekend. we're now joined by two experts who have significant experience in the region. emile hokayem is a mideast-based analyst for the international institute for strategic studies, where his work focuses on syria, iran, and the gulf states. and andrew tabler, who lived in syria for most of the last decade and covered assad for an english-language magazine he

founded there. he is now a fellow at the washington institute for near east policy. let me start with you. the observer mission from the arab league has been in syria for a month. have they accomplished anything? >> they've observed a lot of atrocities by the regime, a lot of fighting, a lot of unrest throughout the country but there are only about 160 of them thus far. and so the mission itself has been very controversial. they have observed the implementation of the arab league protocol to try and stop the crisis in syria but they haven't been able to stop the killing. this is where they've come under a lot of criticism by the opposition and the public at large. >> suarez: do you think that the arab league proposa to ease assad out of power is informed by what those observers have been seeing on the ground in the country? >> mostly informed by the frustration of the arab league because the syrian government

hasn't been really response i have been. the arab league has lost a lot of its luster in the past few weeks. it came under criticism from activists inside the country, from syrian opposition leaders, from the international community and the media. so the arab league needs to recover from that blow. this is why it put forward a much tougher proposal that most people including ourselves expected. this is a pretty comprehensive proposal for a transition of power, something that the syrian government has already turned down. but i would suspect that most people within the syrian regime just don't see that as a viable plan for the moment. >> suarez: has the arab league in the past been a friend to leaders like assad? >> well, the arab league has been mostly silent in the past. it's been a very ineffective and silent organization that hasn't delivered much in terms

of political progress in the region and so on. on libya and more recently on syria, it has taken some stance that were unprecedented. it's endorsed the u.n. sanctions, nato intervention in libya and has been putting some syria on assad, adopting sanctions, suspending syria's membership in the ray and league and now turning to the security council to obtain assad's departure. >> suarez: the damascus government, andrew tabler turned them down flat. what's their next move? >> they're going to try and implement... a series of changes that deal with the constitution in syria, a referendum on the constitution. for the assad regime the problem isn't the regime itself. it's an international conspiracy, a scheme. it's mostly procedural. with niece... with these changes they'll be able to hold on. which is of course at the end of the arab league's announcement today, the report is the fact that the arab

league is going to the security council with this. all eyes will be on russia yet again who until now has vetoed every substantive resolution dealing with syria. >> suarez: could that implicate the united states as well? >> it complicates american diplomacy and efforts substantially because the united states along with the european countries now along with turkey and a lot of others are now pushing the security council to do something but time and time again they've come up with very, very little or in the end some kind of extremely watered-down resolution that has no teeth and has no bearing on the situation. diplomatically there will be a lot going on in the coming days but in the end there isn't anything in sight that will stop the killing in syria and the street from erupting. this is the problem that everyone has in front of them. >> suarez: let's talk about the observer mission. the leader said it's had a good effect that the killing has gone down while the syrian opposition says it's gone on unabated the whole time they've been in the country. many members have quit and left the country in disgust.

will the assad government allow them to stay and what's been the effect so far? >> well, this is a very tricky situation for the monitors because they're obviously under criticism by syrian activists and the syrian people in general. but for the regime, there are ways to buy time to, you know, to plaque ate some of the demands and allow some of the members of the arab league who are not very comfortable with increased pressure to say that something is being done. in reality the head of the observer mission himself is a controversial character. his most recent statements were to the effect that actually he was able to do his job and things... he was discussing the differences between armored vehicle and tanks. very technical details. actually the rate of killing hasn't changed in syria significantly since they were deployed. so i don't think that this is a way out. and many members of the arab league, including saudi arabia

and qatar who have been the driving force behind the diplomacy, have come to the conclusion that it's no longer worth it. saudi arabia has announced yesterday that it would withdraw its monitors from the arab league which could encourage, which could very well encourage other gulf states and other countries to withdraw their own monitors which would lead to a collapse of the mission from within. >> suarez: significant move for the saudis, andrew tabler, to signal their displeasure and sort of bail out on the assad regime? >> it is because-- and this is really important-- the arab league wanted to add observers into syria. they had been talking about raising it to 00. most or a lot of those observers were supposed to come from saudi arabia. with saudi arabia pulling their observers the question is, where are the other observers going to come from? the arab league is going to have to scramble. the saudis taking a tougher position. it really shows that you have a lot of divisions inside of the arab league on how to deal with this. it will be interesting to see how the assad regime tries to

divide the arab league here in the coming days and weeks ahead in the face of a plan from the arab league that it has no intention of implementing. >> in the short time we have left, you both signaled that the list of friends of the assad government is shrinking. is he still powerful? is he still dangerous? what's in the short term what's ahead? >> i still think the balance of power inside the country isn't his favorite but it's quickly eroding. his credibility and legitimacy, even to reach out to, i would say, the domestic opposition 1 that have all failed. he's not on strong ground. the economy is suffering majorly because of the isolation. the sanctions that were passed are having an impact. and at the same time the disarray or the divisions within the opposition are actually postponing the day of his demise. >> suarez: andrew?

>> i think that he is increasing in a weak position. you can see as emile said his support eroding. for example, outside of damascus and then in the,s a you mentioned in your report, the environment, you have large parts of those areas which are outside of government control. government tries to reassert. the problem is you have hundreds of thousands of people coming back out. assad can't put this genie back in the bottle. he's been trying over and over again for over ten months. he simply can't do it. the security solution isn't working. he isn't able to reform his way out of i he's in a dictator's dilemma. i don't think he knows how to get out of it. >> thank you both. >> thank you. >> brown: now to the philippines, a country struggling to cope with its rapidly growing population. tonight's story is part of a new project that looks at the challenge of feeding the world, in a time of social and environmental change.

it's a newshour partnership with the center for investigative reporting, homelands productions, and american public media's marketplace. the project is called "food for nine billion." the reporter for tonight's story is sam eaton of homelands productions. >> reporter: the double barrier reef of this island in the southern philippines is is one of the richest marine biodiversity hot spots had the world. but just a short boat ride away more than a million people depend on these fishing grounds for their food and livelihoods. rice may be the staple food of the philippines but fish provide most of the protein and daily diets. and if a population of communities like this one soar, nearly tripling the last three decades, the effect on the reef has been devastating. fishermen are resorting to extreme tactics to boost their declining catch. this man and his group of

volunteers operate 24-hour patrols trying to protect their local fishing grounds. illegal fishing has become rampant. many use dynamite or sign i'd killing everything within their reach. this man has confiscated more than 50 boats and hundreds of illegal nets in recent years. today he seized this boat. its owner was using a banned net that wreaks havoc on spawning grounds and sensitive corals. the violators aren't bad people. they're just hungry, he says. poor and a country that has one of the highest population growth rates in all of southeast asia, every year adding about two million more mouths to feed. >> it's a hell of a problem. i think you need to look at the statistics. >> reporter: this congressman says the philippines is beyond its caring capacity. that's today with a population just shy of 100 million

people. >> so the demographers are really wore beeed because they feel most likely at the earliest we'll be stabilizing at around 200 million in 2080. >> reporter: that eventual doubling of the population presents an existential threat to the philippines. especially for the people who depend on the natural resources for food. i traveled to a rural fishing village called humay to see how the issues of population growth, food and the environment are connected. what i found was surprising. jason and his wife both grew up in large families typical of this area. but unlike the generations before them this family made a deliberate choice to have only two children. james and jean, ages 6 and 9. >> my income is just right to feed us three times a day. it's really really different when you have a small family. >> reporter: that choice to have a smaller family was motivated by memories of going hungry as young children.

>> in my case we were really hard up before. sometimes we would only eat once a day because we were so poor. we couldn't go to school. i did not finish school because there were just so many of us. >> reporter: the reason they were able to have a smaller family is because they could choose to. a community-based family planning program has made birth control options like the pill accessible and affordable at about 70 chrents a month for the first time in their village. >> in villages we train and identify community-based distributors like this to be able to sell condoms any time. >> reporter: dr. joan castro started the program here. >> this becomes.... >> reporter: she's with the path foundation philippines a group funded mostly through u.s.-aid. what makes her program unique is its emphasis on local partners.

>> which brand of birth control pills are you selling more of? >> well, they like the yellow ones because it's cheaper. >> how much is is it? >> it used to be 35 pesos. then it was 38. now it's 41. >> the idea is to be able to bring access to the people. >> reporter: access that in remote villages like this one was nonexistent before the path foundation came in. in just six years since the program was first established here, family sizes have plummeted from as many as 12 children to a maximum of about four today. this village is one of the path foundation's longest- running case studies. what it's showing is how closely tied family planning is with environmental conservation and putting food on the table. out in the double barrier reef where jason fishes every morning, the shift to smaller families is paying dividends. he and his neighbors have created a marine preserve to help revive fish stocks.

it's working. with smaller families thinking about future generations is a luxury fishermen like jason can afford. >> family planning is helpful because if you control the number of your children, you don't need as many fish to support your family. if you have many children, it's difficult to support them. >> reporter: outside of this village where birth control remains largely out of reach the struggle to put food on the table from one day to the next dominates life. down the road the gymnasium in the region's main town was filled recently with people waiting to collect government assistance checks for food. many stood in line for up to 12 hours. for the families gathered here, these checks are a life line making up for the declining catch from the sea. this scene is one that neighboring countries like thailand and indonesia have largely avoided thanks to

state-sponsored family planning programs. congressman bellow says in the philippines any efforts to do the same have faced stiff resistance. >> what's happening is what we've witnessed recently which is hard-line scorch earth opposition on the part of the catholic church hierarchy to any form of artificial contraception. >> reporter: and in a country that's 80% catholic, that opposition means something. for more than a decade, the church's leadership has rallied against a reproductive health bill in congress that would guarantee universal access to birth control. recently it even threatened the president with ex-communication for supporting the bill. >> that's why i say don't fool with the church because she will bury you. >> reporter: philippiney archbishop says the key to everyone having enough food to eat is a question of development not population control. >> once i was asked which

would you prefer? to have less mouths to feed or to have more food to eat? and they said is there a choice there? come on? if you have more mouths to feed, then produce more food to eat. not the other way around. >> reporter: but that challenge to produce more food is already testing the limits of eco-systems both on land and sea. today the philippines imports more rice than any other nation on the planet. according to the world bank, every major species of fish here shows signs of severe overfishing. technological advances have helped boost the food supply but they've failed to keep pace with the philippines' surging population growth. ma tern wards like this one at a manila hospital are overwhelmed. this doctor heads the hospital's family planning unit but spends most of his time these days with new

mothers. >> she's only 29 years old. this is her 7th child. snft according to the institute, more than half of all pregnancies in the philippines are unintended. it's the poor who come here for maternity care. if they want to prevent pregnancies they're out of luck. absent any state funding for birth control, this doctor has little to offer. that's a stark contrast to the island fishing village where family planning is as close as the corner store. here the path foundation philippines program has taken on a life of its own. the project is now fully integrated with local government's rural health units. >> the vision of the project is in this community you see more children educated who are able to become leaders and speak for themselves in the future and be able to become stewards of their own sexuality and their future environment. this is the legacy. >> reporter: the doctor says success stories like this one

can help overcome traditional attitudes about birth control. jason and his wife, both practicing catholics, don't see a conflict between their religious beliefs and family planning. for them, it's about something much more immediate like what kind of future are they going to pass on to their two children? >> i don't want them to be like us. just to fish the sea. just to farm the land. this is not an easy way to earn a living. you are exposed to the sun. it's better if they can finish their courses so they can have comfortable lives. >> reporter: with both of their children in school, this couple are hopeful with their futures but it's a future that could easily be overwhelmed by outside forces. after all, this is only one village in a country still dead locked over a family planning law in a world that's projected to have nine billion mouths to feed by the middle of the century.

>> ifill: sam eaton's reporting on the philippines food story continues tonight on american public media's marketplace. listen to it on your public radio station. you can find an interactive map, a timeline, and many more resources at the "food for nine billion" web site. there's a link to it on newshour.pbs.org. >> brown: finally tonight, the head of a new consumer protection agency is in place, but the challenge to the mission and the man continues. newshour economics correspondent paul solman has the story, part of his ongoing reporting on making sense of financial news. >> today i'm appointing richard as america's consumer watchdog. ( applause ) >> reporter: richard is richard cordray. perhaps the most controversial recess appointment in recent memory. after a long procedural battle with the senate, the president made cordray head of the consum financial protection

bureau on january 4. >> when congress refuses to act and as a result hurts our economy and puts our people at risk, then i have an obligation as president to do what i can without them. >> reporter: g.o.p. lawmakers cried foul. claiming that the senate was open for business and wasn't on recess, even if no business took place. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell pronounced the move unprecedented, claimed the president had arrogantly circumvented the american people. house speaker john boehner's reaction? >> this action goes beyond the president's authority and i expect the courts had find the appointment to be illegitimate. >> reporter: the consumer financial protection bureau was created under the 2010 dodd frank financial reform law. the argument for it, that it will promote fairness and transparency in consumer lending like mortgages and

credit cards. the argument against, as an independent bureau funded through the federal reserve, it has too much power. the senate banking committee's richard shelby. >> this massive new bureaucracy was designed by the drafters of dodd-frank to be virtually unaccountable to the american people. >> reporter: the struggle preceded cordray's appointment. harvard law professor elizabeth warren set up the bureau as a special advisor after it became clear she would never be confirmed by theson senate. she was opposed by business by backed by consumer advocates who produced a rap video on her behalf. republicans meanwhile distrusted the bureau. as seen in this confrontation with north carolina's patrick mchenry about how long warren would appear at his hearing. >> congressman, we had an agreement. >> you had no agreement. >> we had an agreement for the time this would have.... >> you're making this up.

>> reporter: since a warren nomination seemed a non-starter, president obama tapped cordray, a former tough on crime attorney general of ohio who was already the bureau's head of enforcement. but in a letter to the president, republicans had threatened to withhold support forsi in insisting a bipartisan board run the bureau not an individual. minority leader mcconnell. >> it's one individual who could bring down the banking system in this country if he chose to. unlimited power. >> reporter: as ohio's attorney general cordray made his name as a consumer activist. hounding financial firms that had misled investors, probing foreclosure practices. >> this is jeopardy. >> reporter: decades before that, he had his first brush with successful celebrity. >> a judicial clerk from grove city, ohio, richard cordray. >> reporter: a five-day jeopardy champion at age 27,

cordray was already aggressive. >> i'll bet $1,000. >> reporter: betting on his knowledge of the bible. >> the bible says a man has no better thing under the sun than to do these three hedonistic things. >> reporter: you'll learn how he responded in a bit. 25 years after that first moment in the sun, we met with cordray to ask the former law professor the questions of the hour. starting with, is his appointment legal? >> this is a valid appointment. the law is pretty clear on that. the important thing is we needed a director in order to be able to fulfill the promise to the american people that congress made. we're here now to stand on their side, to protect them against fraud, to see that they're treated fairly in these markets. i don't think there really should be anything controversial about that. i think to the american people there isn't anything controversial about that. >> reporter: republicans say that the consumer finance protection bureau lacks congressional oversight, has too much power? legitimate concerns? >> i have committed to leaders on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers that we will

provide them with the information and the input they need to feel comfortable that they understand what the bureau is doing and why. i think that's the kind of oversight that is called for. i'm committed to doing it. >> reporter: cordray and his agency are already at work. one effort: know before you owe. a campaign to make credit card agreements and mortgage disclosures simpler. >> part of that is boiling down the fine print, clarifying the choices and making the most important terms very clear to consumers. any kind of business model that is based on consumer confusion so people don't know what they're getting into or they're concerned about the terms or the terms are going to shift and change over time that's of concern to us. >> reporter: for that reason the consumer financial protection bureau will examine so-called non-bank firms. until now they have mostly escaped federal oversight. payday lenders, student lenders, and a primary target: mortgage lenders. largely to blame for the financial crisis he says. >> a huge part of the problem

was some people were regulated, others weren't. that led a race to the bottom. people had financial incentive to sacrifice any kind of standards and principles. and enforcement was weak. there's no scout about that. that was part of the problem. >> reporter: you've said there will be real consequences to breaking the law. that is, this law. like what? prison? >> we do not have criminal authority. although we can make referrals to the department of justice. but we can take them to court and to administrative proceedings in order to enforce the law if we can't otherwise correct the problems. >> reporter: aren't regulators always playing a game of cat and mouse? i mean, how do you get around that as a regulator? how do you keep up some. >> it's amazing how creative people can be about avoiding and violating the law. i used to say about frauds and scams that i saw when i was ohio attorney general that if these people would put this kind of energy into start ago legitimate small business we could really get somewhere with our economy. many of them prefer the easy way. that's where enforcement is necessary to ward them off from taking that path.

>> reporter: you think you're going to channel them into more socially useful enterprises? >> i'm very optimistic. hope springs eternal. >> reporter: finally, from your actual week on jeopardy 25 years ago, one of the many you got right though i'm not sure the answer applies to your new job, the bible says a man has no better thing under the sun than to do these three hedonistic things. >> eat, drink and be merry but be careful how you pay for it. >> reporter: those last words aren't in scripture. but they are the key to cordray's "know before you owe" mission. slated for scrutiny tomorrow when he faces a house oversight hearing chaired by representative patrick mchenry. the same congressman who tussled with elizabeth warren last may. >> ifill: again, the major developments of the day. the republican presidential campaign heated up in florida, as mitt romney launched an

assault on newt gingrich's record. gingrich won the south carolina primary on saturday. and tornadoes ripped across the south before dawn. at least two people were killed and 100 hurt in alabama. and to hari sreenivasan, for what's on the newshour online. hari? what are the banks doing with foreclosed homes? paul solmon has the answer. during tomorrow night's state of the union address and republican response, join us online for a google plus hangout featuring familiar faces from the newshour plus some political analysts. find a link on the rundown blog. all that and more is on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. gwen? >> ifill: and that's the newshour for tonight. on tuesday, we'll have a preview of president obama's state of the union address. i'm gwen ifill. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. we'll see you online, and again here tomorrow evening. a brief programming note: we'll carry the "state of the union" speech live at 9:00 p.m. eastern tuesday night. we'll also have the republican response by indiana governor mitch daniels, and the analysis

of david brooks and ruth marcus. i hope you'll join us. thank you, and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> bnsf railway. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy, productive life. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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